


'Till Lease Do Us Part

by gay_hockey



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different jobs, Break Up and Make Up, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:38:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8146043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay_hockey/pseuds/gay_hockey
Summary: "I renewed the lease last month, I wasn't exactly expecting this to happen." Mike gestures between the two of them, giving Tom a sheepish look as he reads the same sentence over again: six months left until their lease expiresor the au where Tom and Mike break up and both are too broke to move out





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this story was heavily inspired by the lesbian web series till lease do us part which I happened to be rewatching a while back and thought "imagine this, but caps roomies style" 
> 
> I started this ages ago and finally decided to wrap it up and post it. I hope you enjoy.

"Are you fucking shitting me?" Tom asks, grabbing the papers out of Mike's hands. 

"I renewed the lease last month, I wasn't exactly expecting this to happen." Mike gestures between the two of them, giving Tom a sheepish look as he reads the same sentence over again: six months left until their lease expires. 

Breaking up is probably a lot more dramatic when you get to shove all your things into a bag and storm out of the apartment, Tom figures. Unfortunately for them, they're both broke as hell and neither of them has the money to move out, or afford this apartment on their own. 

"What do we do?" Tom finally asks, when he's feeling a little calmer.

Mike sighs. "I mean there is one option, but neither of us are going to like it." 

Tom glares, he knows exactly where this is going. "Shoot." he says, trying to look indifferent.

"We could just keep living together until the lease expires." Mike confirms his fears. 

He wants to yell at Mike again, they've been doing a whole lot of that in the past few days, so he'd say he's practically an expert at it. He wants to make Mike understand that breaking up was not his choice and that there's no way he's going to get over him if they're still fucking living together. 

Instead, he takes a deep breath and tries to maintain his composure. "Fine." he snaps, sounding bitter as hell, even to his own ears. "Then who gets to say in our bedroom?"

"I do." Mike says, as though it's the simplest thing in the world.

"What? Why you?" He's raising his voice again, it's crazy how quickly Mike can put him on edge. 

"Because I'm older." 

"What are we? In Kindergarten?" he snaps back, rolling his eyes. 

"Also I found this apartment," Mike adds. "So I get the master bedroom. You can move your stuff into the guest room." He adds with finality. 

Tom practically pouts as he retreats to their shared bedroom and starts dramatically shoving his things into a duffle bag. 

~~~

The guest bedroom doesn't really count as a bedroom, it's more like a storage room for all of their extra shit, with a mattress laying directly on the floor, because they couldn't afford a bed frame. 

Tom doesn't know why they call it the guest bedroom, since it was never truly fit to host any guests, save the occasional drunk Andre, too tired to get home on his own.

Tom glares at the wall in the general direction of where he assumes Mike would be, as he drops down onto the mattress. He wishes he had someone to vent to, but Mike is the one he usually talks to about everything and now he doesn't know what to do. 

He briefly wonders if texting Mike that he misses him would sound desperate and decides against it. Mike would get annoyed at him and probably make fun of the fact that they're literally still living together. 

Tom sighs and texts Andre instead, asking if he's free to meet up for coffee. 

~~~

He and Andre don't usually talk about their personal lives or –God forbid– their feelings, so the entire discussion is kind of awkward and one-sided. 

"So then he's all like 'being with you is just a little too much for me right now, I think we should take a break.' but like we're still living together so what kind of break is that?" Tom recounts the events from earlier this week and Andre nods, trying to look sympathetic. 

"I mean it's not my fault I'm grumpy after a shitty day at work. Like what am I supposed to do? It's not  
like he's perfect either! He's always complaining about his boss." He rants on. 

"Tommy, listen." Andre starts and Tom doesn't really like his tone of voice. "I love you both, and I know you guys fight a lot, but it's because you don't communicate." he enunciates the last word slowly, as though talking to a child. 

Tom crosses his arms and tries not to pout, which would prove that a child is exactly what he is. "Mike and I communicate." he defends. 

"Not about the real stuff." Andre explains to him, in a patient tone. "You're always yelling at each other about silly things when really you have deeper issues."

"You're not my mom." Tom mumbles. 

"No I'm not." Andre starts to smile. "Which is why I have every right to tell you to get your fucking shit together, before it's too late to get him back."

~~~

Unfortunately for Tom, Mike moves really fast after a break up, which is something he'd forgotten about him after they'd been together for three years. 

When he gets back to the apartment, Mike is gone and a note on the counter tells him 'not to wait up'. It's something Mike used to do when he would work late and it sends a painful jolt through Tom, because he knows tonight isn't one of those nights. 

He makes himself mac and cheese and sits down in front of the tv to watch Netflix and mope. 

~~~

He wakes up on the couch, the next morning, and makes his way to the kitchen only to find a guy he's never seen before, already sitting there. Mike must still be in bed, Tom assumes, he never was one to get out of bed before noon unless absolutely necessary. 

The guy is tall, blond and pretty fit, from what Tom can tell. He glares at the stranger as he makes his way to the fridge and opens the door, maybe a little forcefully. It makes a loud squeaking noise in protest. 

"Are you Mike's roommate?" the guy asks him, when he finally finds the milk and pulls it out of the fridge. 

"Roommate and ex-boyfriend." He bites out. 

The guy's eyes grown in shock and Tom counts it as a small victory. He takes his bowl of cereal back to his room before the guy can say anything else, because there is no fucking way he's having early morning small talk with Mike's one night stand, much less serving him breakfast. 

~~~

It takes about two weeks for Mike to start going steady with someone. He mentions it briefly to Tom one day at breakfast. 

"Good for you. I'm happy. Good." Tom replies quickly, which sounds like everything but the nonchalant, totally-moved-on kind of reaction he was going for. 

"Okay." Mike says, eyeing him suspiciously as he packs up his things and heads off to work. 

Tom lets out a sigh of frustration once Mike is out the door. He's not going to get over his ex if he keeps watching him go out with other people and doesn't try dating anyone, himself. 

The issue is, he doesn't want anyone but Mike. 

~~~

His mother calls him that night and asks about work, mostly. She catches him up on the life back home, his father's promotion, how his brother's job is doing back in Toronto and how she wishes he'd stayed around too, instead of moving to DC. Finally, as he had dreaded, she asks how Mike is doing.

He freezes up at the question. His mother never really approved of him dating a guy and he knows the question is a test. She's trying to find out if their relationship is failing, so she can give him the "I told you so" speech. 

"Mike's doing great." he answers eventually. "We're doing great." The lie weighs heavy on him, even as it rolls off his tongue. He wishes it were the truth. 

"So do you think you'll be bringing him home for Christmas again this year?" she asks.

"Yes, just like I have for the past two years." He retorts, obstinate, but inwardly sighs, Christmas is still three months away, but with the way things are going, this might be a losing battle. He'd hate to let his mother have the last word on this, but relationships do fail sometimes. 

~~~

It takes about another week for Mike to decide that he's ready to bring his new boyfriend home and flaunt him around, probably just to make Tom jealous (which he is). 

He makes the guy dinner and everything, Tom assesses as he walks past the living room and to the kitchen for the tenth time that night. This time he picks up the pepper shaker and pretends to be very deeply intrigued by its pepper dispensing abilities. 

He's kind of given up being discreet, at this point. He glares at the pair from his hiding spot as they drift to the couch and turn on the tv. 

He lets go of his pepper shaker and takes a bag of popcorn out of the pantry, sticking it into the microwave. He figures if he's going to be Mike's ex-boyfriend slash roommate, he might as well be an asshole about it. 

"What are we watching?" he asks as he drops down next to Mike on the couch. 

"We're not watching anything, until you go away." Mike says, giving him a stern look. 

"What? It's my house, too!" Tom defends. "I'm pretty sure I have every right to watch tv here if I want to." he shoves a handful of popcorn in his mouth and chews obnoxiously. 

"Tom." Mike warns and Tom's not above admitting Mike's really hot when his voice gets all low and commanding like that. 

"What? Shh, I wanna watch the movie." Tom says innocently, turning the volume up. 

Mike glares at him for a few more seconds, before giving up and leaning back to put his arm over his new boyfriend's shoulder. 

Tom retaliates by chewing even louder and shifting on the couch, so the rickety old thing rocks a little. Mike turns to him and glares again, but Tom just feigns innocence and looks on intently at the tv screen. 

Eventually, Mike turns to whisper to the other guy. "We're going to bed." He tells Tom, as he gets up and the guy follows. 

"But this is the best part!" Tom insists, despite the fact that he wasn't even watching the movie, but they're gone. 

He turns the volume way up just so he doesn't have to hear anything coming from Mike's room. He doesn't think he could handle that right now. 

~~~

He sleeps in until noon the next day, in hopes of avoiding having to face Mike's boyfriend. He feels he might be exaggerating a little, when he glances outside his room to ensure the coast is clear. 

He closes the door behind him, with a small sigh of relief and starts heading over to Andre's house where he plans to spend a few hour complaining about Mike and his boyfriend. 

"You could move in with me." Andre suggests after Tom tells him about Mike and his new conquests. The offer takes him by surprise. "Like just for a month or so until you figure something else out..."

"I don't know... It's not so bad." Tom says, and he's not sure if he's trying to fool himself or Andre, but the latter clearly isn't buying it. 

~~~

"I have a date tonight." Mike informs him at breakfast. 

It's Saturday, so neither of them have to go to work, which means they always end up dancing around each other awkwardly. It's hard to avoid someone you share an apartment with. 

"Cool." Tom replies, casually. 

"It's with a new guy I met, his name is Darren." Mike continues, as though Tom might actually want to know who he's going out with, this time. 

"What kind of name is Darren?" Tom mumbles as he stares intently at his sandwich. 

He thinks he hears Mike say something under his breath, but he doesn't ask. Just lets them fall back into an uncomfortable silence. 

~~~

"Hey, Tommy." he hears Mike yell from the other room, which is weird because he thought they weren't talking to each other. He makes his way over anyway. 

"What?" he asks, leaning against the doorframe of what used to be their room. 

"Which tie looks better?" Mike says, holding up two ties that definitely do not go with the shirt he's wearing. Tom can't believe he's going no to help his ex-boyfriend get ready for date night. He sighs and walks over to the drawer where Mike keeps his ties and pulls out a blue one. 

"Wear this one, it goes with your eyes." he instructs, but doesn't give Mike the time to put the tie on. He quickly wraps it around the shirt's collar and ties the knot. "You've always been bad at tying those." He gives Mike a nostalgic kind of smile. 

Mike looks like he's about to say something, but thinks better of it. "Thanks." he finally says after a few moments, and Tom takes a step back.

"You look good." he announces and he thinks he sees Mike blush a little.

"Thanks," Mike says, then blurts out, "You too."

Tom laughs. "I'm wearing sweatpants and the same shirt I wore yesterday."

This time, Mike definitely flushes. "You look good all the time, and you know it." he mutters.

Tom smiles, they may be living together, but he misses Mike. They barely see each other anymore, and when they do, they don't talk, and he misses it like hell.

"I should go." Mike says, but after three years together, Tom's gotten good at reading his body language and he's pretty sure leaving isn't Mike's number one priority right now. 

"I have a date and stuff, you know." Mike continues, but doesn't make a move to leave, instead, he takes a step closer to Tom, who feels his own heartbeat accelerate. Their eyes meet and for a second, Tom thinks, this is it. 

"I have to go." Mike says, this time with more conviction and the moment they were previously sharing quickly shattered, replaced by Tom watching the sway of Mike's ass as he walks out the door. 

Fuck. 

~~~

The next day, he calls Andre. 

"Hey, were you serious about letting me move in," Tom asks as soon as Andre picks up. "just for a little while?"

"Ya, sure." Andre replies, he sounds concerned. "What happened?" 

"I just can't keep watching Mike be with other people." he sighs. "Other people who are not me."

"Okay. We can start moving your things into the spare room as soon as you want." 

"Thanks, man." He hangs up and sighs again. So much for his hopes of getting back with Mike. So much for Christmas dinner and proving his mother wrong about "gay love".

~~~

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon when they get the last of his boxes into Andre's car. It's oddly fitting, like the entire world is mourning the tragic ending to their beautiful relationship, which he know isn't true and that probably no one really gives a fuck. 

He's soaked through his hoodie and his hair is dripping wet. He glances up at the apartment one last time and remembers the day they bought it. It wasn't much, but it was theirs, and it meant something. 

"You sure you're making the right choice?" Andre asks. 

"No." he confesses after a moment. 

"Then go make sure." Andre says, encouragingly. Tom thinks he knows what that means. 

He gives Andre a hopeful smile, returned by two thumbs up and he heads back inside the building. He takes the steps two at a time, rushing back to their apartment as though his life depended on getting back as soon as possible. 

He hesitates for a second, before he knocks on the door. He's bracing himself for inevitable rejection, but if there's the slightest chance of hope, he has to take it. He raps his knuckles against the wood of the door and waits for what feels like an eternity. 

Mike opens the door and takes in the sight of him, soaked through and panting. 

"Did you forget something?" Mike asks, eyeing him suspiciously. 

"Yes. Um, no. I…" he starts and begins to wonder if he should've planned some sort of great romantic speech. It's too late for that now though.

"I love you, Mike." He almost pleads. "I don't want to move out, and I will, if you want me to, but I just need to know that that's what you want. That there's no chance of us ever getting back together." He pushes his soaking hair out of his face, just to feel like he has something to do with his shaky hands. 

Mike stares at him, mouth hanging open, for what feels like an eternity. "You're so fucking cliché." he finally says and his face breaks into a smile. 

He steps out into the hallway, grabbing a handful of Tom's damp hoodie and reels him in, pressing their mouths together almost violently. 

Tom immediately responds to the feeling of Mike's lips under his, like coming home after a long trip. He steers them out of the hallway and into the apartment, kicking the door shut behind him and pushing Mike up against the nearest wall. 

He revels in the feel of Mike under him, the warmth and familiarity of it. They click back into place as though they were never apart. Kissing Mike is almost like second nature. He knows what will make his breathing quicken, what will make him moan. 

He tails his mouth from Mike's lips and down his neck, sucking and nipping at the skin just enough to leave a mark, then running his tongue over it. 

"This is gonna be the best make up sex of your fucking life." he whispers into Mike's ear. 

Mike laughs at that, kissing him once on the lips, then grabs his hand, pulling him towards the bedroom. Their bedroom.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading this. comments and kudos are always appreciated.


End file.
